The numbers are flying around — so much so that one cannot be sure of where force levels will be in a few months. However, based upon press reports and data provided by the Brookings Institution’s Iraq Index, we can make some educated guesses.
Category Archives: Iraq
2+2=3
Or some (more) things in the Budget Proposal don’t add up
Suppose the President’s plan to escalate troop levels in Iraq succeeds in stabilizating Baghdad. What does that mean for future expenditures in support of the occupation of Iraq? Is the President’s $50 billion request for Iraq related expenditures in FY2009 consistent with the plan? This article from GovExec.com provides some hints.
Is a 12 Step Program Needed for Policymaking in Washington?
Army Transformation sacrificed on the altar of …(a) tax cuts, (b) Iraq, (c) other
Or, “opportunity cost illustrated” redux. From GovExec.com:
Escalation and Accidental Military Keynesianism
Under plausible assumptions, Fiscal Year ’07 expenditures for operations in Iraq will come close to 1 percentage point of GDP. What will be the impact on the U.S. economy?
The Wartime Economy and Tax Policy
So Shinseki was right.
President Bush on Economics
On Wednesday, the President writes in a Wall Street Journal op-ed (sub. req.):
Blood, oil, and ideology
Mark Thoma and
Two Angry
Bears
call attention to this post
from Christopher Hayes.
Surge or no surge? minimal “burn rates” for operations in Iraq
Where are expenditure rates now? Where might they go?
Additional thoughts on Iraq
Shivaji Sondhi and Michael Cook, who direct the Project on Oil, Energy and the Middle East at the Princeton Institute of International and Regional Studies, offer these additional thoughts for the cross-blog discussion on Iraq as a follow-up to their original contribution.